


Set The Stage

by cluelesspaladin



Series: Krolia and Romelle's Guide to Finding Happiness After a War- And Maybe Kissing, Too [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/F, Kromelle, canon-divergent AU, i dunno, more a character study/background thing?, pre-relationship piece, there's a lot of reminiscing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:41:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22858702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cluelesspaladin/pseuds/cluelesspaladin
Summary: It’s during a skirmish some time later that Krolia realizes that the several months spent in close quarters with the younger Altean might have developed feelings other than the initially assumed maternal thoughts.-Or, Krolia attempts to sort out her past and possible future. And maybe starts to - ahem- catch feelings.
Relationships: Krolia & Romelle (Voltron), Krolia/Romelle, Krolia/Romelle (Voltron)
Series: Krolia and Romelle's Guide to Finding Happiness After a War- And Maybe Kissing, Too [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1643254
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Set The Stage

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CruelisnotMason](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CruelisnotMason/gifts).



> A gift for CruelisBlue, who requested Kromelle. All the things.

Krolia has seen a great number of things in her lifespan thus far. Done a fair few more, she imagines.

Joining a resistance against Zarkon, fighting undercover for years on end until she’d found herself crash landing on a small terran planet who knew nothing of the war, the rebellion or anything in between. Fallen in love with a Terran- something she should not have done at the time, she’ll admit. But bringing her only child; her precious kit Keith into the world- she would not apologize for. Not when holding that tiny form to her chest had evoked such feral instincts in her to protect him and his home planet at all costs.

Even if it would mean eventually abandoning her mate and cub to an uncertain but tentatively hopeful future.

Impulsive, Kolivan calls her. Reprimands, most of the time. She’s always been fierce and follows her instincts regardless of what others try to tell her. Nine times out of ten, it goes in her favor. The other instances are usually lorded over her head by Kolivan and Ulaz; the latter unfortunate enough to have to deal with her when she gets dragged into the med bay.

Somehow, it’s continued to work out in her favor. It led her to be reunited with her kit, her Keith. Granted, it also resulted in getting trapped in the quantum abyss for two years and suffering through not only her own memories and glimpses of the future, but her son’s.

Every now and then, a glimpse of a blond-haired woman appears in the future.

Krolia thinks nothing of it when they rescue the same young woman from the colony.

-

Romelle looks much younger than her true age lies.

Krolia supposes it can’t be helped- the colony was essentially brainwashed by Lotor over the years. It would not surprise her in the least if that had involved memory alterations or a lack of mental maturity.

Out of curiosity during one of the cool evenings on some nameless planet, she inquires into the Altean’s past. She knows of Romelle’s loss, felt it through their shared memories whilst traversing back through the abyss. But there are still a great many things she doesn’t know. Things that curiosity, a dash of cabin fever and a desire for companionship drive her to ask.

(She’s already wrung as much as she can out of the paladins. Nearly all of them are unnerved or wary around her. She knows it’s due to her rather imposing figure and no-nonsense attitude.)

Romelle is past her maturity by some equivalent of fifty human years- slightly older than the princess but nowhere near the same age as the elder attendant. Krolia suspects Coran is even older than she, but the Altean seems quite content to evade most questions about it and reveal cryptically specific memories that pertain to the _creation_ of the Voltron lions.

She makes a note to ask someone what the average lifespan of an Altean is someday.

To some extent, Krolia places her instincts to protect Romelle under the maternal category. The poor thing is still quite young in the ways of the universe, having been trapped on the colony world for so long without any contact to the outside. Krolia makes it her personal mission to take her under her wings and show her what she knows, careful to keep out of the way of the paladins if she is not needed. Shiro and Keith have their unspoken Thing that they need to sort out; indeed, there’s some emotional elephant in the room that they have to fix on their own time and their own terms.

If her wayward offspring doesn’t make a move and soon, however, she’ll have to take matters into her own claws.

-

She chooses to train the Altean in close quarter combat. For her own safety, primarily; Alteans are a tempting target for any remaining loyalists to the Empire, and coupled with her complete lack of basic knowledge on most matters outside her colony, no one wants to take a chance.

Romelle also happens to be a quick study.

Oh, she’s hesitant at first, downright overdramatic in her fears as Krolia attempts to teach her how to fight like a Blade. Not necessarily like Galra, as the resistance has had far too long and too much free time on their hands to refine a unique signature style. But she quickly learns that while Krolia is brisk and occasionally curt, she is also a very patient teacher who does not mind showing her the same maneuver several times over.

It’s during a skirmish some time later that Krolia realizes that the several months spent in close quarters with the younger Altean might have developed feelings other than the initially assumed maternal thoughts.

 _Shit_ , she thinks, watching Romelle hold her own against a bounty hunter who thought she would be an easy mark. With Allura and Coran’s teachings, the blond Altean quickly took to the innate shapeshifting abilities that all Altean’s possessed. What stirs something in Krolia is the fact that the Altean assumed a Galra form to achieve her task of incapacitating the bounty hunter.

There’s something attractive about the way that the soft muscle the younger woman boasts shifts under her Galra guise, familiar blue eyes locking with hers as Krolia moves to her side. The other three bounty hunters stood no chance against the paladins- Coran was currently in the process of whistling some vaguely familiar tune as he watched over their now prisoners, twirling a bo staff in his hands idly.

“Are you alright?” she inquires, checking for any visible signs of injury.

“Of course! Not a scratch!” the blond replies far too cheerfully, flexing her new musculature. “I had a great teacher.”

It isn’t often that Krolia can be struck speechless, but she thinks she feels her neck heat at the light praise.

It wouldn’t be the first time that the younger woman would slide such compliments her direction, either. Usually innocently enough in that no one but her cub notices the exchange. Keith has inherited her perceptive instincts and can see that there’s something going on, but he’ll let it lie unless it’s something urgent.

It’s endearing and exasperating at the same time.

-

The closer the paladins grow to Earth, the more Krolia thinks of the place she once, briefly, called home. Her memories reside primarily around the desert shack she and her then-mate had taken residence. Far enough away from most civilization to be left be without any questions, naught but the earth and stars surrounding them.

She wonders if that shack still stands. Keith had mentioned residing in it for some time following his… exit… from the Garrison, but that hardly means anything. Time, the Galra, anything could have destroyed it by now.

By the looks of things, Keith wonders the same thing. That shack was, before coming to space, the only link he could call home. Now, of course, he’s returning, but it’s with a mother he hadn’t known was still alive, his pack of friends, and three displaced Alteans who had nowhere else to go.

It isn’t until that small blue dot comes into view that she realizes that it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to settle down once the war is over. To rediscover the place that had won her heart over when she had first landed years ago. Perhaps find what happened to her first mate and lay to rest her lost feelings with him. Galra weren’t necessarily monogamous, but Tex had been special.

(Of course it wasn’t his real name, but she’d always loved that southern drawl he’d pull out in the soft whispers of night, the howls of coyotes in the distance accompanying them to bed.)

Romelle seems entranced by the vivid hues despite the violently purple ships that hover in the atmosphere. It’s a new world to the Alteans. A new place of possibilities and potential should they manage to win the fight against the Galra here.

Krolia fights the small smile that tries to pull at her lips.

Perhaps.

But not now.


End file.
